 |
| I have no clue who most of the characters on this set are, but he was very excited about his big birthday gift. |
 |
| No more number shirts! |
 |
| Birthday breakfast was monkey bread. |
 |
| My sister made a nice card for her youngest nephew. |
 |
| More birthday meals to make and more birthday news to share, but here is the beginning for our April 2 boy. |
 |
| I spent a lot of December planning the last Advent supper at church. I made supper for 75 people and served it on December 22. Several church families had family home for the holidays and it was a fun evening. We collected peanut butter and jelly for the Seminary food bank and here is some of what was collected. After supper that evening we decorated the church for Christmas and had Christmas cookies and goodies while we decorated. I served the wassail tea that our church in ID served at the Ladies tea every year and everyone loved it. I think it will be a new tradition to serve that while decorating at our church now. I love that our church waits until the end of Advent to decorate the church and it is all ready for Christmas Eve. |
 |
| One day my parents babysat the boys so they could decorate Christmas cookies with my mom. Our boys had been sick with colds so the date got changed several times until everyone was healthy to do it. Ram and I ran errands while they were at my mom's. It was so nice to be able to go without them. When we got back to my mom's our |
 |
| We ordered our own hats for our local March for Life. It was a major pain to order them, we could not get the website to work. We finally called the Synod and they were so helpful to place our order for us. Shipping was outrageous because they expect churches to make a big order, not just order 5 hats. After all that we were really excited when they came in the mail and we had to take several selfies. I don't know if we will ever make it to the Washington D.C. March for Life, but we will proudly wear these at our local March for Life. |
 |
| I really liked how this one turned out. |
 |
| Lamb 3 needs to work on his selfies a little bit. |
 |
| I told you Lamb 2 loves selfies! |
 |
| On December 23, the day after I served the dinner at church, Ram went to get our tree out of storage. While he did that I quickly swept and did a little cleaning to get ready for the tree. The whole family helped and we decorated the tree quickly. We chose a slightly different spot than last year and I love our tree in this house with high ceilings. I am so glad I purchased it at a church auction last year. |
 |
| All of the Lambs were acolytes for the first time together on Christmas Eve. 💗💗💗 I think I am done buying Christmas |
 |
| My parents ended up coming to church with us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day even though that was not planned, because my mom did not want to drive in the snow. It ended up being really nice to worship together. Ram assisted with the service so I was glad to have my parents to sit with me. Lamb 2 just can't help himself with selfies when he is given a camera! |
 |
| Christmas Eve |
 |
 |
| I bought a skirt for $2.64 including tax at Christopher and Banks after all my coupons. I couldn't believe it really worked. Unfortunately they had very few skirts for sale in the whole store. I found a basic grey skirt in my size that I love. Another unexpected blessing for me while Ram is in school! I don't have any photos to post here, but a few days after Christmas we went over to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread cookies. The mom was so organized and a fun time was had by all. Lamb 1 took pictures, mostly of the babies at the party, instead of decorating cookies. Lamb 2 and 3 decorated a cookie, ate the toppings, and then decorated it again. They did this with about 3 cookies each. |
 |
| After the gingerbread party we went to eat lunch at Chik-Fil-A. The Lambs got a gift card as present from a church member. I thought that was a great present for preteens. Lamb 1 and 3 were happy to order whatever they wanted and still had $ left on their $10 gift card. Lamb 2 ordered everything he wanted and needed us to pay a couple more dollars. That's the way it usually goes-Lamb 1 saves his money, Lamb 2 spends whatever money he has, and Lamb 3 spends some of his money. They were glad to order what they wanted instead of being limited like we usually do when the whole family goes-(water or lemonade, no dessert). |
 |
| Chik-Fil-A was really crowded-what was I thinking to go to lunch during Christmas vacation? So the Lambs wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but I made them pose for a picture outside. |
 |
| Grandma spoils our boys so much that we don't buy them very much for Christmas, just small stocking treats for the 12 days of Christmas. I thought this Lego chemist was pretty cool so I ordered it. The company made a mistake in advertising this set, so after it arrived I got an e-mail that they would refund my money. So they ended up getting this set for free. And that completes our 2017 Review. Happy New Year! |
 |
| Lamb 3 was so proud of the cake he made for his 9th birthday. |
 |
| He received a Lego house that could change seasons. He was very excited to put the basketball hoop outside the house. He spent a lot of time trying to figure out which pieces would be used to make different seasons such as pieces that made a fireplace for winter made a grill for a summer barbecue before he opened the box. |
 |
| We celebrated at my parents' house. He wanted green candles for his cake. |
 |
| My last Lamb in his last year to wear the number shirts. I have such fond memories of the Lambs wearing these. |
 |
| Here the birthday Legos are put together until he decides to change it to the next season! |
 |
| His life size skeleton puzzle was much smaller than him and too easy for him to put together. |
 |
| Lamb 3 spent some of his birthday money on a Spiderman glove with silly string. He had fun for a couple of days. |
 |
| Photo Credit: Steve Blakey Lamb 1 was an acolyte for the first time for the beautiful Easter Vigil service. |
 |
| The ladies wore Easter bonnets and Easter was a joyous day at our church. |
 |
 |
| My mom hosted us for dinner on Easter. I was so full from Easter breakfast at church, that I wished we would have celebrated at my parents the next day. After the owl relish tray, she attempted a Easter bunny relish tray. |
 |
| Lamb 2 and 3 dyed eggs, but Lamb 1 thought he was too old to dye eggs. |
 |
| Lamb 2 continued and enjoyed his gymnastics session. |
 |
| I worked the Vera Bradley outlet sale in 2003. I tried to work the sale this year, but it was much more complicated to be hired than when I worked. It ended up we had a lot going on that week and I was glad I didn't work the sale and miss activities at church and with our family. I did go on the "free" day along with a few other customers! I didn't spend that much money, but got some nice gifts. I may try to go every few years, but definitely won't fight the crowds to shop every year even though this is in Fort Wayne. This photo is when I was in the middle of the line to pay! |
 |
| My sister made her godsons a Jeopardy game with answers from the small catechism in honor of Lamb 1's upcoming confirmation. We played some of the game with my dad, but it was taking too long and we never finished that game. Maybe next time my sister visits? |
 |
| The last Saturday in April was a very full day. First Lamb 1 had confirmation questioning. He did very well. |
 |
| Then my mom's church hosted an apron party for ladies. I attended as my mom's guest. They had these cute homemade decorations with the schedule of the day's events. My mom was one of the hostesses and her table had old mixing bowls with cookie cutters etc. as centerpieces. |
 |
| I had taken many of my aprons from my collection to my mom to display at the party. Everyone brought one apron to tell about to the party. It was so much fun to hear about other aprons. After the party I discovered another box of my aprons as we get settled after moving. Oh well, at least I found some before the party! |
 |
| My mom's apron is made out of a feed sack, mine is from Beatrix Potter's childhood home. |
 |
| With the apron that my grandma gave me when I was about 10 years old. It was used as at a wedding reception for the ladies that served cake. |
 |
| My mom with the apron that she made in home economics class in high school. She eventually became a home economics teacher. She wore this apron for many years early in her marriage and it is worn out. I am so glad she kept it even during her downsizing a few years ago. I made a photo book of the apron party as a gift for my mom. She has had fun showing it to friends. After the apron party, we went to an out of town basketball game for Lamb 1. |
 |
| Lamb 2 and 3 had to go along to Lamb 1's basketball games. Here they are standing on some famous basketball player's footprints. I don't know who it is, but some pro player from Indiana. It got to be too many games so usually Lamb 2 and 3 went to my mom's during games when Ram had class. |
 |
| The Lutheran high school started a middle school team to try to build the boys skills before high school. Lamb 1 was on the 7th grade team. They learned a lot, had a lot of fun, but lost early in the tournament. I liked that all the Lutheran schools were involved in one team for boys that were really interested in basketball. |
 |
| Photo Credit: Steve Blakey Our Synodical president, Rev. Matthew Harrison was supposed to preach at our church in April in honor of our 125th anniversary. He was unable to come due to a family emergency. Our district president, Rev. Jamison Hardy, preached that day. The seminarian that assisted that day, Winston Grieser, was in 4th grade at the school that I taught at when I began teaching. Bishop Hardy was a student at CUW when I was in college. When our church photographer posted this picture with Winston on the left; Rev. Hardy preaching; and my family in the front row; I just had to laugh at how the small LCMS world collides years later. That was a very fun day with lots of friends. We are very blessed that we are able to be back in Fort Wayne and attend our church. |
 |
| I entered Katie Schuermann's pie contest in April. |
 |
| My sister and I are 7 years apart and ever since she was born we have been competing with each other. She was on the launch team for Katie's new book, The Harvest Raise, so she received a e-copy around the time that I was competing to try to win a t-shirt. She bragged a lot, but wasn't allowed to talk about the book with me until it was released. |
